1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates broadly to apparatus and methods utilizing an air barrier emitting light for body protection and more specifically as applied to dentistry for body protection of a dental or other medical team. a dental team normally comprises a dentist, dental assistant, and hygenist.
2. Description of Related Art
A long-standing problem associated with dentistry has been the exposure of the dental team to relatively high velocity amalgram particles, blood aerosols, saliva splash, and the like, generated during drilling, polishing, syringing and like dental operations. Such procedures may extend over a relatively long period of time. The patient may be in a prone or upright position in the dental chair and the patient's head may be tilted to the right or left during treatment or may be erect. Modern dental drills eject a water spray or mist as a coolant which becomes mixed with other foreign matter much of which is propelled or blown from the oral cavity towards the dental team. It is known that such foreign matter may travel as much as thirty inches from the oral cavity and the direction of travel changes when the patient's head is tilted to one side or the other during treatment. Such exposure has long been known to pose a health threat to the dental team because of exposure to patients who have a common cold, influenza, or hepatitis and whose treatment may generate and cause aerosols with pathogens and viral particles to be propelled from the oral cavity. The emission of such foreign matter also exposes the patient and the dental team to possible damage to the eye during treatment. The dental team frequently leave the office with a gravity covering on skin and hair which is not only uncomfortable but is at times offensive with regard to odor emission and may be a source of infection. in offices where nitrous oxide is utilized, the dental team is exposed to nitrous oxide spillage around the patient's mask and mouth during administration of the gas. To date there has been no solution to preventing such contamination.
With the relatively recent spread of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) the dental team is now concerned with an even more serious problem, namely, that of treating the AIDS patient. Recent disclosure by the Centers for Disease Control and reports at the Third International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., in Jun., 1987, include a reported case of an apparent transmission of AIDS via infected saliva contact with a cut on a dentist's finger.
The dental professional works in an environment in which numerous pathogens, both blood-borne and saliva-borne can be present. Transmission of hepatitis B, herpes simplex, the common cold and other infectious diseases have been documented are a clear danger in the dental practice. Aerosol produced by high speed air drills with water spray and air-water syringes produce the described air-borne carriers. As a result, various infectious diseases may be transmitted from the patient to the dental team. At the same time, the patient is subject to contamination by saliva spray during conversation with a dental team member. Some protection is afforded by the practice of members of the dental team wearing masks, gloves and gowns during the entire treatment procedure.
While applicant is aware of little scientific evidence at this date to support the contraction of AIDS by means of saliva and blood splash and/or aerosol, more evidence may eventually appear. Regardless of whether more scientific data emerges to prove or disprove an AIDS threat through the contamination of skin and respiratory tract during dental procedures, there is an immediate need among practicing dentists, hygienists, dental assistants and other medical personnel to be shielded from such contamination.
Thus, what is needed is a protective apparatus and method which substantially eliminates or at least reduces and minimizes the described contamination of the dental team or other medical team. It is also desirable that such protective apparatus and method be in a form which leaves the dental team free to perform dental operations of the kind which produce the undesired emissions with minimum interference to vision and minimum interference to hand operations in the area of the mouth of the patient upon which a dental operation is being performed. Of particular importance is that such protective apparatus and method maintain the protection when the patient's head is tilted during treatment and is normally necessary.
Also, it will be understood the same protective apparatus could be used in similar medical environments, such as an operating tables, where blood and other emissions from the patient positioned on the table could prove a danger to the medical team working on the patient.
Since one advantage obtained from the dental light is based upon establishing a specially formed protective air screen envelope surrounding the patient's head and established between the oral cavity and the dental team, mention is made of prior art apparatus utilizing protective air streams. U.S. Pat. Nos. 428,592; 1,646,103; 2,032,101; 2,560,215 and 3,881,478 represent prior art devices having head mounting structure and means mounted on such structure for creating an air stream to prevent externally produced foreign matter from reaching the face of the wearer. Air streams have also been used for ventilation or cooling. Head mounted ventilating devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 735,959; 2,051,730 and 4,282,869. Barber and beautician's chairs equipped with means to force air over the customer's face are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,051,730; 2,420,251 and 3,248,146. U.S. Pat. Nos. 374,424; 2,703,134 and 3,131,967 describe chairs with means for directing an air stream to cool the body of the occupant of the chair.
What can be surmised from the foregoing prior art is that an air stream on head mounted apparatus has been employed to prevent foreign matter propelled toward the face and generated by a source external of the body, e.g., a grinding wheel as in U.S. Pat. No. 428,592 or a source of noxious fumes as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,646,103, from reaching the face. However, the recited prior art did not recognize that an air stream from a source not mounted on the body can be employed as a shield and deflector to prevent moving drill particles, blood, saliva splash, aerosols, and the like, generated within the oral cavity of a patient and propelled outwardly from the mouth of the patient from reaching the face of a dental team member who typically operates near the face of the patient from which such foreign matter is ejected.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,447 followed substantially all the recited prior art and taught the concept of mounting on a dental chair an outlet header connected to a blower and an to a blower and an opposed inlet structure connected to a suction source, both of which are required to be positioned substantially directly over the oral cavity in order to function. The '447 patent apparatus teaches the forming of a planar-laminar air stream and refers to use of such stream to reduce the transfer of microorganisms. The '447 apparatus, however, does not create an air stream which envelopes the patient's head and oral cavity and has to be adjusted whenever the patient's head is tilted or otherwise changed in position. Further, the planar-laminar stream once positioned provides only limited protection against particles, blood aerosols, saliva splash, and the like, emanating from the oral cavity in a specific direction. So far as applicant is aware, the '447 patent apparatus has never been marketed in the apparent twenty years of its existence and is not currently available.
Thus, the primary object of the invention becomes that of providing an apparatus and method directed to preventing or at least substantially eliminating exposure of a dental or medical team to foreign matter propelled from the patient, such as from the patient's mouth, during a dental or medical operation. A more specific object is that of providing an apparatus and method utilizing a light emitting an air envelope surrounding the patient's head or other body part, as a means for both confining and collecting hazardous foreign matter propelled in various directions from the patient during a dental operation. Other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds.